On Wed, 14 Apr 2004 20:11:32 GMT, lid
(Rodger Whitlock) wrote:

~On 14 Apr 2004 07:25:52 GMT, Nick Maclaren wrote:
~
~ Are they widespread in the coastal strip stretching from Vancouver
~ to Anchorage, because that is the only patch that HAS anything like
~ long, dark, WET winters? The point is that many hibernation and
~ semi-hibernation techniques don't work in the UK, because of the
~ unreliable cold in the winter.
~
~According to the distribution map in Roger Caras's "North
~American Mammals", raccoons only get up the coast some ways north
~of Vancouver, and then nada. Not in Alaska, evidently.
~
~But here in Victoria, we have oodles, and our winters are long,
~wet, dark, and definitely have unreliable cold -- as you so well
~phrase it. Shall I ship you a container of raccoons?
~
~ They probably could naturalise here, but it isn't certain. Some
~ cold-winter animals have trouble.
~
~If life in the countryside isn't congenial, they'll simply move
~into the cities.
~
~ | Main disadvantages of raccoons: they can carry rabies; they will
~ | eat all the cherries off your tree; they will eat all your corn
~ | before it's quite ripe (not that corn is a common crop in the
~ | UK); they can destroy a cat with ease, and even dogs are at risk.
~
~ Not all that different from a fox, in most of those respects.
~
~Raccoons present one additional problem: they look cute[1] with
~their black masks. You can make a pet out of one if you start
~when it's young, but when it grows, it's not entirely
~trustworthy.

When I was in California, just north of SF, I stayed in various youth
hostels while doing a tour round. All had dire warnings of what would
happen if a coon got into your car. Trashing it seems to be the
general result, and my idea of coons as genial furry things went out
of the window. Never leave your car unattended with a window open or
else!

Personally, if real coons got into our ecosystem as against this
coati, I'd hope that someone would encourage folk with traps or
shotguns to go and get them before they established, as they really
would be a menace to our native wildlife, much as the released mink
have been to riverside mammals. Folk would never be able to use black
sacks for rubbish (they'd shred them), leave things open and what
about dog or cat flaps?

~
~[1] "Cute" as in squealingly announced "O he's s-o-o-o-o
~c-u-t-e!" by dim & clueless members of the female sex.
~Fortunately, no female urgler falls into that category.

Well you have to admit tigers are cute. Big fluffy kittens. With
attitude. And teeth. And claws like kitchen knives. And good luck to
them...

g


--
jane

Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone,
you may still exist but you have ceased to live.
Mark Twain

Please remove onmaps from replies, thanks!